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Variety is the spice
of life!
©2005 Matthew A. C. Newsome, FSA Scot, GTS
published in the Scottish Banner, August 2005
The kilt today seems to be more popular than ever. Part of this
is due to the fact that kilt makers are offering a greater variety in their
kilts. Just look at Geoffrey Tailor’s line of 21st century kilts,
for instance, or The House of Edgar’s emblem kilts. Some dyed-in-the-wool
purists balk at such innovations. They see things like the pockets in Hector
Russell’s “Hillwalker” kilts as foolishness. And solid color kilts?
Anathema!
However, I have to grin at those who think they are defending
“tradition” by adhering to a style of kilt that in actuality is a fairly
recent development. One benefit of my job as the curator of the Scottish
Tartans Museum is that I have had the pleasure of examining many old kilts
from the nineteenth century. And one thing that I have learned from that
experience is that the kilt was anything but a set style during that time.
The nineteenth century is when many of our notions about what is
“proper” to wear with a kilt arose, which is why you still see such a
Victorian flare in much of our formal Highland dress. However, the kilt
itself seemed to be in a state of constant evolution. At the beginning of
that century, the tailored kilt was in its infancy, having just been born out
of its untailored fealidh-beag predecessor. The tailored kilt, c.
1800, was box pleated, to the stripe or to no pattern at all, and contained
about four yards of cloth. Fast forward a hundred years, and you find the
kilt c. 1900 to be knife pleated, either to stripe or to sett (a novelty
then!), containing about eight yards of cloth. The intervening years saw just
about every possible style in between the two.
For instance, we have the example of the so-called “Kinguisse”
pleat. This style of pleating is named for the first such kilt discovered,
housed in a museum in Kinguisse, Scotland. It is a Robertson kilt, made about
1820, with a single box pleat in the center of the back, and knife pleats
fanning out in opposite directions from either side.
Every nineteenth century kilt I have examined has had some feature
that a modern kilt-wearer would find unusual. This one has buttons sewn on
for suspenders. That one is held closed with a silk ribbon tie at the left
hip. This one buttons closed, and another is held closed with a pin.
We have recently acquired a child’s kilt made in a solid grey tweed, with a
wide brown horizontal stripe running about an inch above the bottom of the
kilt. Now there is something that today’s kilt makers have yet to offer – a
racing stripe kilt! But I have seen Victorian photographs of men in the same
style.
Early in 2004
I stumbled upon one of the more unusual kilt features that I have ever
encountered. A gentleman wrote to me saying that he had what he believed to
be a kilt from the 79th New York Cameron Highlanders, a kilted
American regiment formed in 1859 that wore the Cameron of Erracht tartan. He
sent me photographs to see if I could verify this information.
While the kilt was in the Cameron of Erracht tartan, and was from
the latter half of the nineteenth century, it was not a 79th New
York regimental kilt. The kilts worn by that regiment were all machine
stitched, and pleated (more or less) to the sett. This kilt was obviously
hand-tailored and pleated to the stripe. It was made in Scotland.
I had kilt maker and kilt historian Bob Martin take a look at the
photographs to get his opinion. One thing that puzzled both of us was this
long hole that appeared to be in the center of the inner apron. It was not a
rip or a tear. It appears to have been purposefully tailored in.
Its function was a mystery until we imagined where the hole would
lie on the male anatomy when the kilt was worn… viola, we had it! This
slit had been tailored in to allow the wearer, when he heard the call of
nature, to simply be able to pull aside the outer apron and attend to his
business. As you can imagine, we each got quite a chuckle.
What’s next, then? A kilt with a zipper, or a button fly? All I
can say is that it would not be the first time someone had the idea.
Obviously many of the styles of kilts that one finds during the 1800s did not
catch on. By the time we come to the end of that century, the kilt had
evolved to the garment we are familiar with today – eight yards of cloth,
knife pleated, with tapered hips, lining, and straps and buckles on either
side. It’s a style that has served the kilt wearer well throughout the
twentieth century, and no doubt will continue to do so in the twenty-first.
Despite the endurance of this “classic” form of kilt, we should not be
surprised to see some experimentation and innovation offered by our kilt
makers. Die hard purists, take heart. Some styles will (mercifully) fade
away in a short time. Others may be here to stay with us for a while. That
will be something that is – ultimately – decided by those who wear the kilt.
